marginal utility

noun

: the amount of additional utility provided by an additional unit of an economic good or service

Examples of marginal utility in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web As consumers consume more of a product, the marginal utility tends to diminish. Abdo Riani, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024 But in this case the main beneficiaries are likely the intermediaries, the for-profit institutions which provide trivial marginal utility to many students while charging for nearly worthless credentials. Discover Magazine, 5 Nov. 2019 Income gains can overcome diminishing marginal utility. Bill Conerly, Forbes, 26 Aug. 2022 Perhaps, Berwald opines, the popularity of the move to ban oxybenzone owes as much to a desire to do something in the face of the threats to coral reefs, even if that something is of marginal utility. Tim Flannery, The New York Review of Books, 4 Nov. 2021 Iguodala still had marginal utility as a back-end rotation piece. The Salt Lake Tribune, 6 Feb. 2022 His central idea of marginal utility was simultaneously developed in England by W.S. Jevons and on the Continent by Léon Walras. Edward Chancellor, The New York Review of Books, 14 May 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'marginal utility.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1890, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of marginal utility was in 1890

Dictionary Entries Near marginal utility

Cite this Entry

“Marginal utility.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/marginal%20utility. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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